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Franklin Gutiérrez
Franklin Rafael Gutiérrez, nicknamed "Guti" & "Death To Flying Things" (born February 21, 1983, in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Major League Baseball outfielder who plays for the Seattle Mariners. He bats and throws right-handed and is regarded as one of the game's best defensive outfielders. Professional career Cleveland Indians On November 18, 2000, Gutiérrez was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent.http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gutiefr01.shtml#trans On April 3, 2004, Gutiérrez was traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers with a player to be named later (Andrew Brown) to the Cleveland Indians for Milton Bradleyhttp://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gutiefr01.shtml#trans and was assigned to Double-A Akron. He entered the season ranked by Baseball America as the No. 3 prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and the top position prospect, possessing five-tool ability. Previously, Los Angeles refused to include Gutierrez in a deal over the winter that would have landed the Dodgers first baseman Richie Sexson. In , Gutiérrez posted a .261 batting average and 42 RBI for Akron, and hit .254 with seven RBI in 19 games with Triple-A Buffalo. Between his two minor league stops, he stole 0 bases in 1226 attempts. He was among the players that the Indians called up when major league rosters expanded August 31. In after batting .278 in 90 games for Triple-A Buffalo, Gutiérrez played 43 games in the majors after being called up on June 16 and he stayed in the majors the rest of the season. In , he once again began the season in Triple-A Buffalo, but after batting .341, he was called up for good on May 6. On May 27, , Gutiérrez hit his first grand slam. Seattle Mariners On December 10, , he was traded to the Seattle Mariners as part of a three-team trade.Mariners announce three-team, 12-player trade with Mets and Indians Mariners' General Manager Jack Zduriencik noted that the trade would not have gone through had Gutierrez not been included in the trade. In he ranked 3rd among qualifying big league outfielders in UZR, an all-inclusive fielding statistic.FanGraphs leaderboards Dave Niehaus called Gutierrez "Death to Flying Things" after a diving catch,Wash makes it through 7mynorthwest.com a nickname that previously belonged to Bob Ferguson. In 2009, he had the most errors by a major league center fielder (7), mostly due to the immense number of batted balls that he gets to.[http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/position/cf/sort/errors/order/false "MLB Player Fielding Stats - As cf - 2009," ESPN, accessed October 6, 2009] He led all of Major League Baseball in UZR and UZR/150 and was 6th in the AL in wins above replacement. On January 6, , it was reported that Gutiérrez and the Mariners were working on a 4 year contract extension for $20.5 million with a team option for a fifth year. References External links * *MLB.com player info page *The Baseball Cube player page Category:1983 births Category:Living people Category:Akron Aeros players Category:All-Star Futures Game players Category:Cleveland Indians players Category:Jacksonville Suns players in Caracus Category:Las Vegas 51s players Category:Major League Baseball outfielders Category:Major League Baseball players from Caracas Category:People from Caracas Category:Seattle Mariners players Category:Vero Beach Dodgers players Category:Center Fielders Category:Outfielders Category:Players